I attended an awesome conference a week ago and got to meet some dynamic people. I wanted to thank Andree Martineau and Tami Anderson for their session on Mentoring – Networking. Those that attended their session got to experience the power of developing a relationship with someone that they did not know before. They got to experience the various levels that the relationship could aspire to and what happens when you reach each of the different levels. What we got to share was the process of building the various levels of that relationship.

I was truly blessed in that I got to experience the various levels in a short period of time with a person that I had not met before. We went from the 3 minute elevator pitch to learning more about what each other did on a professional basis to sharing some very personal information. Through the course of our conversations we developed an element of trust that allowed us to feel comfortable in sharing that degree of personal information.

As an effective mentor your success is based on your ability to develop a trusted relationship in a short period of time. While I was at this conference I was also sadden to hear of situations where this had not taken place. I heard a young entrepreneur briefly speak of a bad experience with mentoring and was very vocal about the negative experience. I wanted to change the outcome of her experience as I knew that she more than likely did not get the chance to develop a trusted relationship or even a relationship before the whole process went south on her.

Understanding how to build that relationship is important. Creating that safe environment where people feel comfortable sharing is important. Demonstrating that you really care and are genuine in your words and feelings is important. Great leaders have excellent relationship building skills. Those that do not have it will not be successful as a mentor. Those that have to work at it need to create a development plan that will help them continue to grow in their relationship building capabilities.

Trusted relationships are one of the foundational elements to successful effective mentoring relationships. Trusted relationships are part of a mentoring culture. Trusted relationships are part of life in general. We build them with a lifelong partner – we build them with family and friends. Some of those relationships are more in depth than others. It is important to realize that building trusted relationships is a transferable skill – a skill that you can use in your personal and professional life. Leverage the “power of mentoring” and develop relationship building skills. Can you afford not to?